Shofar FTP Archive File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-07/tgmwc-07-65.08

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Last-Modified: 1999/11/19
Paragraph 12 of the memorandum states that:
"Germans must not share a room with the Eastern woman
worker."
Paragraph 14 states that:
"Clothing as a rule cannot be supplied to Eastern women
workers."
These two documents just mentioned by me, "Instructions for
the Treatment of Foreign Workers" and "Memorandum of the
Employment of Eastern Female Workers" - reflect the inhuman
conditions of work for the forcibly mobilised Soviet
citizens.
The Soviet Prosecution has at its disposal numerous
documents, the testimonies of persons who themselves
experienced the terror of Nazi slavery; the mere enumeration
of all these documents would take too much time.
The Soviet Government already had at its disposal, in the
early phases of the war against Nazi Germany, many proofs of
the crimes of the Nazi conspirators in this field.
The first document of this kind published by the Soviet
Government is the Note of the People's Commissar for Foreign
Affairs, Molotov, dated 6th January, 1942, which was
presented to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution as
Exhibit USSR 51/2, and this note stated that:
"The peaceful citizens forcibly deported for compulsory
labour were proclaimed 'prisoners of war' by the German
authorities and treated as such. It has been established,
according to reports of Staffs of the German Army, that
peasants and other peaceful citizens seized by the
Germans and deported for compulsory labour were
automatically put on the list as prisoners of war. Thus
the number of prisoners of war was artificially and
unlawfully increased.
After the occupation of Kiev, the Germans drove into
slave labour all the civilian population from eleven to
sixty years of age, irrespective of their profession,
their sex, state of health or nationality.
In the vicinity of the town of Plausk, in the region of
Tula, a camp was established where Soviet war prisoners
and the civilian population from neighbouring villages
were interned at the same time. The Soviet citizens
[Page 241]
were there subjected to inhuman tortures and sufferings,
There were young boys and girls, women and old men among
them. Their only food consisted of two potatoes per day.
The death-rate reached 25 to 30 persons daily.
People who were too ill to stand on their feet were fined
by the Germans
for every day of work they missed.
In Kharkov the German invaders decided to make the local
Ukrainian intellectuals a subject of their mockery. On 5
November, 1941, all actors were ordered to appear at the
Schevtschenko Theatre for registration. When they had
gathered, they were surrounded by German soldiers who
harnessed them to carts and drove them along the most
frequented streets to the river for water."
The second document of the Soviet Government was the Foreign
Commissar's Note, dated 27 April, 1942. This Note is
submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR 51. Section 3 of
this Note is entitled: "The Inhuman Sufferings and Death of
Soviet Citizens under German fascist slavery".
This Note stated that:
"In the Ukraine and Bielorussia the Germans introduced a
fourteen and sixteen hours workday, in many cases without
any compensation and in some cases with ridiculously low
wages."
In the secret instructions entitled "On the Current Tasks in
the Eastern Regions", captured by Red Army troops at the
beginning of March 1942, the chief of the Military Economic
Inspectorate, Lieutenant General Weigang, admits that:
"It has proved impossible to maintain industrial
production with the labour of semi-starved and semi-clad
people"; that the devaluation of money and the commodity
crisis coincide with a dangerous lack of confidence in
the German authorities on the part of the local
population, and that this constitutes a danger to the
peace in the occupied regions, which cannot be permitted
in the rear of the combat troops." The German general
points out in this document that these occupied regions
should be called "our new Eastern colonial possession".
Acknowledging that the complete collapse of industrial
production in the occupied districts has led to mass
unemployment, the German General Weigang issued the
following orders for speeding up the forcible dispatch of
the Russian, Ukrainian and other workers to Germany.
"Only the shipping to Germany of some millions of Russian
workers and only the inexhaustible reserves in the
occupied Eastern territories can meet the unparalleled
manpower shortage in Germany."
In the order seized by the units of the Red Army, it was
decreed that "the entire civilian population of the occupied
districts should be mobilised for all kinds of heavy labour,
and it was stated that this forced labour was not to be paid
for, and it was insolently declared that by this unpaid
labour the population would atone for its guilt for the acts
of sabotage already committed, as well as for the acts of
sabotage which could be committed by them in the future."
In Kaluga, on 20 November, 1941, an "Announcement" was
posted signed by the German Commandant, Major Portazius,
which ran as follows:
"1. Citizens who do poor work or do not work the
specified number of hours will be subject to a monetary
fine. In the event of non-payment, delinquents will be
subjected to corporal punishment.
2. Citizens who have received a work assignment and who
have not reported for work will be subject to corporal
punishment and will receive no food rations.
3. Citizens evading work in general will, in addition, be
expelled from Kaluga. Citizens afraid of work will be
attached to labour detachments and columns and billeted
in barracks. They will be used for heavy labour.
[Page 242]
This note indicated also that the land would be
transferred into the ownership of German landowners. This
was established by a Land Law which was promulgated at
the end of April, 1942, by the Hitlerite Gauleiter Alfred
Rosenberg."
I pass on to the next Note of People's Commissar for Foreign
Affairs, Molotov, which was published a year after the Note
dated 27 April, 1942.
On 11 May, 1943, the People's Commissar for Foreign
Affairs, Molotov, sent to all Ambassadors and Ministers
Plenipotentiary of all the countries with which the USSR
bad diplomatic relations, a note "Concerning the
Wholesale Forcible Deportation of Soviet Citizens to
German Fascist Slavery, and Concerning the Responsibility
Borne for this Crime by the German Authorities". This
note is submitted to the Tribunal in evidence as Exhibit
USSR 51/4.
I consider it necessary to read a few quotations from this
Note. On Page 165 of the document book, with the proofs,
there is a reference to a declaration of Goering from 7
November, 1941, which has already been mentioned by me. I
will not repeat again all that Goering said at that
conference. I will only stress that Goering issued a blood-
thirsty order not to spare the Soviet people deported into
Germany, and to handle them in the, most cruel manner under
any excuse. This order is included in section 4 and "A" of
the above-mentioned Note. It reads as follows:
"In applying measures for the maintenance of order, the
main principle must be swiftness and severity. Only the
following forms of punishment must be employed, without
intermediary grades: deprivation of food, and death by
sentence of field court martial."
On the 31st March, 1942, Sauckel issued the following order
by telegraph:-
"The recruiting, for which you are responsible, must be
speeded up by every available means, including the stern
application of the principle of forced labour."
The Soviet Government is in possession of the complete text
of a report by the Chief of the Political Police and
Security Service under the Chief of the S.S. in Kharkov,
headed "The Situation in the City of Kharkov from 23rd July
to 9th September, 1942".
"The recruiting of labour power," states this document, "
is causing the competent bodies disquietude, for the
population is displaying extreme reluctance to go to work
in Germany. The situation at present is that everybody
does his utmost to evade enlistment. Voluntary departure
to Germany has long been entirely out of the question."
Your Honours, I must stress that the defendant Sauckel, as
General Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Manpower,
actively pursued criminal activity, as it is pointed out in
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov's Note which
I just presented. On 31 March, 1942, Sauckel sent to his
subordinate departments a telegraphic instruction regarding
the utilisation and the work of the mobilisation commissions
of Russians. I submit this telegram of Sauckel's to the
Tribunal in evidence as Exhibit USSR 382. In this telegram
Sauckel writes:
"The rate of mobilisation must be increased immediately
and under all circumstances to ensure in the shortest
possible time, that is to say, by April, that a three-
fold increase in the number of workers shall have been
sent off."
Sauckel's efforts were appreciated by the defendant Goering
at the time when he was Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year
Plan. I refer now to the conference which Goering held on
the 6th August, 1942. This document has been submitted by
the Soviet prosecution to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR 170.
I beg you to refer to pages 12 and 13 of this document. Page
184 of the document book, Goering came forth with the
following words :
"I have to add to this. I do not wish to praise the
Gauleiter Sauckel, he does not need it . . ."
[Page 243]
THE PRESIDENT : (interposing) All this was read the other
day. The actual words were read yesterday.
GENERAL ZORYA: I am quite sure, Mr. President, that my
colleague, who read into the record this document, did not
read into the record this particular passage.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but I still think that he read this
excerpt which you have got set out in your document: " I do
not wish to praise Gauleiter Sauckel; he does not need it. .
. ." He certainly referred to the excerpt which you have
just summarised about Lohse.
GENERAL ZORYA : I do not wish to argue but I had the
information that this excerpt had not been read into the
record. If you like, I will not read this passage into the
record.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps you are right. I do not know.
GENERAL ZORYA: Then, I will read it into the record very
briefly:
"I do not wish to praise Gauleiter Sauckel; he does not
need it. But what he has done in a short time, to collect
workers quickly from the whole of Europe and supply them
to our undertakings, is a unique achievement of its kind.
I must tell all these gentlemen that if each of you used
in your sphere of activity a tenth of the energy used by
Gauleiter Sauckel, the tasks laid upon you would indeed
be easily carried out. This is my sincere conviction and
in no way fine words."
I return to the Note of the People's Commissar for Foreign
Affairs, Molotov, dated 11 May, 1943. This Note further
gives data concerning the number of Soviet people who were
deported to Germany. This Note states that the deportation
of Soviet people to German slavery was accompanied nearly
everywhere by bloody repressive measures of the invader
against Soviet citizens, seeking refuge from the slave
merchants who were hunting for them. It has been established
that in Gzhatsk seventy-five peaceful inhabitants of the
town were shot, and that in Poltava sixty-five railroad men
were hanged. The same thing occurred in other towns, and
also executions, shootings and hangings were carried out on
the same scale.
THE PRESIDENT: I understood from you at the beginning of
your speech that you were going to finish your presentation
this afternoon. It is now five minutes past five. Is there
any chance of your finishing to-day ?
GENERAL ZORYA : If I had not been interrupted by defence
counsel for ten minutes in connection with a discussion
about the order of the German occupational authorities I
would not have needed more than ten minutes to finish the
statement.
THE PRESIDENT: How long do you think it will take you now ?
GENERAL ZORYA: A maximum of ten minutes.
THE PRESIDENT: Very Well.
GENERAL ZORYA : The Note states The Soviet citizens in the
territories captured by the Germans are with growing
frequency and organisation offering courageous resistance to
the German slave-owners. . . . The growth of the partisan
movement, as a consequence of the resistance the Soviet
citizens are offering to forcible transportation to German
slavery, is admitted with alarm in a number of secret
reports from German army and police administrations."
This Note quotes further a number of testimonies of Soviet
people who had escaped from German slavery. I will only
quote one of these testimonies of Kolkhos member Varvara
Bakhtina of the village of Nikolayevka, Kursk region, who
stated:
"In Kursk we were pushed in cattle wagons, fifty to sixty
persons in each wagon. Nobody was permitted to leave.
Every now and then the German sentry hustled and punched
us. In Lvov we had to get out and be examined
[Page 244]
by a special commission there. In the presence of the
soldiers we were compelled to undress completely and have
our bodies examined. The nearer we got to Germany, the
fewer were the people left in the train. From Kursk they
took three thousand persons, but at nearly every station
the sick and those dying from hunger were thrown out. In
Germany we were put into a camp with Soviet prisoners of
war. This was in a front section surrounded by a high
barbed-wire fence. Four days later we were taken to
different places. I, my sister Valentina, and thirteen
other girls were sent to a munitions factory."
The third section of this report describes further the
regime under which the Soviet workers lived in German
slavery. This part of the report also mentions the statement
made by Goering concerning Russian workers. Goering states
in the above-mentioned directives:-
"The Russian is not fastidious and, therefore, it is easy
to feed him without affecting our food stocks to any
appreciable degree. He must not be spoiled or allowed to
get accustomed to German food."
Finally, the Note quotes a number of letters from home to
the German soldiers on the Eastern Front, which describe the
humiliation to which the Soviet workers were subjected. I
will quote a passage from one of such letters. A letter from
his mother in Chemnitz was found on the dead body of Wilhelm
Bock, a German private, of 221st German Infantry Division.
This letter reads:-
"Many Russian women and girls are working at the 'Astra'
factories. They are compelled to work fourteen and more
hours a day. Of course, they receive no pay whatever.
They go to and from the factory under escort. The
Russians literally drop from exhaustion. The guards often
whip them. They have no right to complain about the bad
food or ill treatment. The other day my neighbour
obtained a servant. She paid some money at an office and
was given the opportunity to choose any woman she pleased
from a number here from Russia."
Letters also mention many cases of suicide of Russian women
and men.
This note ends with the declaration of the Soviet
Government, which states that it places responsibility for
atrocities in this domain on the leading Hitlerite clique
and the High Command of the German Nazi Army.
"The Soviet Government also places full responsibility
for the above enumerated crimes upon the Hitlerite
officials who are engaged in recruiting, abducting,
transporting to camps, selling into slavery and inhumanly
exploiting Soviet civilians who have been forcibly
transported from their native land to Germany ... The
Soviet Government holds that stern responsibility should
be borne by such already exposed criminals as Fritz
Sauckel and Alfred Rosenberg."
And finally the note points out:
"The Soviet Government expresses the conviction that all
the governments concerned are unanimous on the point that
the Nazi Government and its agents must bear full
responsibility and receive stern punishment for the
monstrous crimes they have committed, for the privation
and suffering they have inflicted upon millions of
peaceful citizens who have been forcibly deported to
German slavery."
This is the end of the Note of the People's Commissar
Molotov. Kindly allow me to close my statement also with
these words.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 23rd February, 1946, at 10.00 hours.)

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